System.

1. Derive

   Start from inputs

   A color is a step on a ladder. A size is a step on a scale. A duration is one of seven tiers. Change an input and everything built on it moves together, and the gaps that keep text readable and spacing even stay where they were.

2. Name

   Name things for their job

   The tokens are called things like ink, line, control, card, hover and layout, so you can tell what each one is for by reading it. There is no token for a one-off value. If I want one, I need a good reason.

3. Enforce

   Let the computer check

   A rule written down in a doc gets forgotten, by me included. So the contrast minimums run as a script, every page is screenshotted and compared before a change goes out, and a test makes sure content never plays its entrance twice.

4. Reuse

   One method, many sites

   I have used the same approach on more than a dozen product and client sites, and each one still looks like itself. The reusable parts are open source: the palette formula, the motion tiers and the screenshot regression pass, written up as skills any agent can run.

/* a ground, a card, a hairline */
L = paper + depth × step     C = tint      H = hue
/* a line of text */
L = ink-l + ink-step × step  C = ink-tint  H = hue

1. Contrast

   Every text color on every background

   A script checks each text color against each background and fails anything under 7:1, plus any control border under 3:1. It is the same check running live under Color while you tune. When something fails, I fix it by adjusting an input, so the fix carries everywhere that input is used.

2. Screens

   Before and after, every page

   Playwright screenshots every page and every case study before and after a change, then ranks what moved. I sort the noise from the real regressions before anything gets merged.

3. Motion

   Content never animates twice

   A probe watches the page as it changes and fails if anything that stayed put replays its entrance. Only new content should animate in.

1. Type

   Fraunces, Archivo, Fragment Mono

   Fraunces is the display face. It is a variable serif with an optical size axis, so the small name in the header and a full-width headline each get letterforms drawn for their size. Archivo is for body text, and Fragment Mono is for labels, dates and anything technical. All three are self-hosted and preloaded, and the two main faces fall back to system fonts adjusted to match their metrics, so text does not jump when they load.

2. Motion

   GSAP

   Runs the preloader, the hero's line reveals, the manifesto that scrubs with the scroll, and the cursor. It stays off the critical path. On a phone it waits until the page is idle, and with reduced motion turned on it never loads.

3. Scroll

   Lenis

   Smooths out wheel scrolling, so anything tied to the scroll moves continuously instead of in steps. Anchor links go through it too. With reduced motion on, you get the browser's normal scrolling.

4. Atmosphere

   Three.js

   Draws the smoke behind the hero, a single full-screen shader of warped noise that leans toward your pointer. It is the heaviest thing on the site, so it only runs on desktops that can handle it and waits until the browser is idle to load. Everyone else gets a CSS gradient in the same ember color. It pauses when the hero scrolls out of view and follows the light and dark theme.

5. Case studies

   React and Tailwind CSS

   The interactive builds in the case studies are React, styled with Tailwind CSS v4 on a shared set of tokens. Each one only loads on its own case study.

6. Build

   Vite+

   Builds the pages and hashes the assets. The site itself is plain TypeScript, because it is a document with some motion, not an app.